Autumn Spiced Zucchini Bread

Spiced zucchini bread with all the autumn flavors! A warm, comforting zucchini loaf with tons of spice to warm you up on chilly mornings — the perfect accompaniment to a piping hot cup of coffee!

Zukes!! All up in my bread. YES.

Autumn spiced zucchini bread is tender yet dense, cinnamony with hints of cloves, all spice, freshly grated ginger and nutmeg so it had just enough warmth to brighten your day without being overwhelming. But it’s also buttery, crackly on top with crunchy sugar, sweet but not too sweet so it is the perfect mate to your coffee, and just gosh darn, beautiful to look at. Feel all the glorious autumn feels on a cool, crisp Monday morning for breakfast. Then again for a 3pm pick-me-up on Tuesday. And let’s not forget the midnight refrigerator raid on Wednesday evening.

I made 2 whole loaves of my spiced zucchini bread this past week and shared it with friends and family. You know. Just to get some feelers. Is it too spicy? Is the crunchy sugar on top weird? Does it taste good with coffee? And about another hundred questions that they get hit with every time i’m recipe testing baked goods. It was suppose to be my first go at the bread, but with the overwhelming response from 10+ people all in BOLD and CAPS screaming how delicious this was, I knew I had a winner on my hands. And as I type this, I nibbled down the very. last. slice. It’s gone. 24 slices, 2 whole loaves and **POOF** like magic.

But really, thinking back now, were people suppose to say no to buttery, warm zucchini loaves?

Friends. I just need to you to STOP and DROP everything you’re doing and take a big ol’ virtual whiff of the most sinfully spiced zucchini bread.

We’re talking sweet cinnamon and cloves, to give it that nice warmth with a pinch of all spice and a little nutmeg to round it out. It gives you all the feels of a good PSL. Warm and fresh, when you pull it out of the oven. At first you think to let it cool. But who want’s to wait. You grab a knife. Give it a slice. Then top it with a generous pat of butter (maybe a little too generous) while the steam still rises. At first the butter holds it’s ground. And then you see the bread working it’s magic. The butter goes weak at the knees for a split second before it’s at the complete mercy of the loaf. You take a bite, warmth starts to surround you. It’s putting life back into the grey days of fall. You can feel the joy in your bones and all the way deep into your soul.

And all of a sudden, all the colors go brighter.

Also important to note –> this is bread friends. We’re talking a slightly more dense version of a cake, rich, less sweet and forgive me for saying this, moist. In a perfect world I could eat cake alllllll day long. But then i’d be missing out on all the other things this zucchini bread has to offer — hello! CRUNCHY SUGAR TOPPING. Majorly crushing on the crunchy crust. But this tender-crumb bread could really be a close relative of a zucchini cake. Only made more substantial with an extra egg, and a lot less sweet than a traditional cake.

As we inch closer and closer into fall, we should really turn the last of the good zucchini crop into something worth remembering. And sure, it takes a little bit of work to make feel-good food like zucchini bread. We grate the zucchini and let it sit, just to press out any excess water. Then we grate the ginger and combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and the dry ingredients in another bowl. A quick mix and you’ve got not one but two perfect loaves with all the smells of autumn spice wafting from your kitchen.

Aromatherapy baking? Is that a thing? Because it should be.

We were at 90 degrees last week with warm showers every single day but inside the kitchen it was an autumn spice wonderland.

Yield: 2 loaves or about 18-24 slices

Autumn Spiced Zucchini Bread

Prep Time:10 mins

Cook Time:45 mins

Total Time:55 mins

Spiced zucchini bread with all the autumn flavors! A warm, comforting zucchini loaf with tons of spice to warm you up on chilly mornings — the perfect accompaniment to a piping hot cup of coffee!

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (I used a mounded teaspoon for a more brilliant pop of flavor)

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup oil or melted butter (I used ½ cup melted butter and ¼ cup oil)

1- 2 tablespoons melted butter

3 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans with a light coating of cooking spray. Line the loaf pans with parchment paper. Set aside. Place the grated zucchini in a sieve over a bowl to allow any excess moisture to drain.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, all spice, nutmeg, and salt until completely mixed.

In a large bowl, use a whisk to beat together the brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and melted butter together.

Add the grated zucchini to the flour mixture and fold so that most of the zucchini is nicely coated with the flour mixture. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches to the wet ingredients, stirring just enough to combine with each incorporation. DO NOT OVERMIX.

Divide the batter into the loaf pans equally and bake the bread for 35 minutes. Remove the loaves from the oven and brush with the melted butter. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar on the tops and return to the oven for another 8-15 minutes. The bread should be golden on the outside and a toothpick inserted in the thickest part should come out clean. My bread took exactly 43 minutes, but keep in mind it’s always better to underbake and have it moist than to overbake.

Let the bread cool for several minutes on a wire rack before removing from pan. But really, who can wait that long, right? SMELL THE SMELLS.